The
Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a
World War II American fighter aircraft. Developed to a
United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive
twin booms and a single, central
nacelle containing the pilot and armament. The aircraft was used in a number of different roles, including
dive bombing,
level bombing, ground
strafing, photo
reconnaissance missions, and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with droppable fuel tanks under its wings. The P-38 was used most extensively and successfully in the
Pacific Theater of Operations and the
China-Burma-India Theater of Operations, where it was flown by the American pilots with the highest number of aerial victories to this date. America's top
aces
Richard Bong earned 40 victories (in a Lightning he called Marge), and
Thomas McGuire (in Pudgy) scored 38. In the
South West Pacific theater, it was a primary fighter of
United States Army Air Forces until the appearance of large numbers of
P-51D Mustangs toward the end of the war.
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